House interior 760 years old found intact in Germany

Apr 19, 2011, 16:13 GMT

Erfurt, Germany - Experts in historic buildings said Tuesday say they may have found in an old townhouse in the eastern German city of Erfurt the oldest domestic interior in continental Europe north of the Alps.

The interiors located in a room of the first-floor of the house, called Steinernes Haus, has been kept intact since it was first erected in about 1250.

The outlines of flowers are still painted on the oak-beamed ceiling, and an original candle niche is still let into the thick plastered masonry walls of the eight-metre-square room.

The room has had a few coats of paint but almost no fix-up, because for centuries it was used to store grain.

Only the floor has rotted away: it was replaced 20 years ago with concrete before the city of Erfurt realized the room's significance.

Erfurt, in former East Germany, is to seek UNESCO recognition as a medieval Jewish centre. Town records show a Jewish merchant owned Steinernes Haus in 1293. Erfurt's other Jewish buildings are an 11th- century synagogue and a mikvah ritual bath documented since 1248.

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